Best of the Rest of October

I have not been the most dependable blogger. I'll try to catch up by listing some of my favorite tracks from September and October with a few brief comments.

In alphabetical by Artist:

Anuhea - Barista - pop jem from Hawaii.

As Tall As Lions - Circles, Sixes and Sevens - Soaring guitar-pop. A little like Death Cab (when they rock out) or Helio Sequence. They sound like they must be from the Northwest.

David Guetta - When Love Takes Over, Sound of Letting Go - Hit the dance floor with these techno thumping anthems.

Jack Peñate - Be The One, Tonight's Today - - really good worldy/folky/dancy/tracks. Reminds me of Vampire Weekend a little bit.

KRS-One and Buckshot - The Way I Live, Clean Up Crew - dope rhymes and old-school beats. KRS-One is one of the all-time great MCs.

Mika - Blue Eyes, Good Gone Girl, Touches You, We Are Golden - If you like Scissor Scistors or similar throwback disco-pop, you'd like this guy.

Miss Li - Bourgeois Shangri-La, Dancing the Whole Way Home - Now that's some good English girl-pop right there. Or at least she sounds English to me. Lily Allen would be proud.

Nickodemus - Sun Children, 2 Sips & Magic - Great trip-hop, jazz, acid-jazz, latin-y stuff.

Phish - Joy - A solid album if you're a Phish fan. If you're not a fan, don't worry about it.

Slavic Soul Party! - Taketron, Baltika, Get It How You Live, Canaan Land - Best Slavic/Mexican/Latin Jazz/New Orleans style-brass band ever! Nothing like it anywhere.



Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll (James Iha Remix) - Rockin'.

Yo La Tengo - Here To Fall - Guitar goodness.

Remember that you can listen to most of these tracks all the way through at least once on Lala.com. It's worth getting an account.

Janelle Monáe - Crazy Robot Lady

Janelle Monáe's music is a combination of throwback sensibilities with modern production values, and the result is outstanding. Her EP, Metropolis: The Chase Suite is based on the Fritz Lang movie from the early 20th Century of the same name. I've never seen the movie, but I know it involves robots and stuff.

Monáe's voice is reminiscent of Shirley Bassey. In fact, when I played one of her songs for a couple of the kids on my XC team, they said it sounded like a James Bond theme, which makes sense since Bassey sang at least three that I know of.

*** Bonus points for anyone who can name which Bond themes Shirley Bassey sang without looking them up on the Interwebs.

Sincerely, Jane is by far the standout track. It combines a full orchestra with amazing vocals and DJ breaks. It's just not often you hear horns that.... brassy.

Sincerely, Jane - Janelle Mona...

I also recommend Many Moons and Violet Stars Happy Hunting.

At some point, Monáe made her way to Atlanta, and not surprisingly, she's been involved in projects with Big Boi of Outkast. When I listen to her music, I can definitely hear the musical connection. She appears on Big Boi's Got Purp? Vol II with an incredible dance track called Lettin' Go. It sounds like she's channeling Rock With You era Michael Jackson, and she's almost as good as MJ here.

Lettin' Go - Janelle Monae

Beer Bread. Mmmm.

I didn't really cook anything this week, but I did make beer bread from a mix which is almost cooking. And Bob K brought me a bit of a stew he made for me to take home, so at least I ate home cooking one night, which is still a positive. It was good, by the by.

The bread is from a Trader Joe's mix and I used the Anchor Winter Ale. Beer bread is great. It tastes great fresh with chili, later with PB & J and toasted with butter and honey too. It's just nice to have the baked bread smell in my place for a few days also.

I know it's easy to make from scratch, so maybe I'll try that next time. Baby steps.

Blitzen Trapper - Black River Killer, Big Black Bird

Even though the alliteration of the band name and their logo totally smack of 80s metal band, Blitzen Trapper is a folk-rock band from Portland, Oregon. On their latest EP, Black River Killer, these two jumped out at me.

Black River Killer is the first track, and it starts with a short, smooth acoustic guitar intro and then goes right into the vocals. A synthesizer comes in to lend the song an eerie, modern feel as the song rambles along. The singing immediately made me think of Jerry Garcia. Even the lyrics, which seem to tell the story of a man damned to kill again and again, are reminiscent of some of the Dead's more morbid tracks. In particular, the song reminds me of Stagger Lee and Mexicali Blues.

Black River Killer - Blitzen T...

Big Black Bird opens with a muscular electric guitar lick and a harmonica. This song reminds me of Neil Young or the Band, but I guess (for my younger readers) the modern equivalents would be Wilco or My Morning Jacket. The chorus is upbeat and catchy, and Blitzen Trapper use harmonizing vocals to great effect.

Big Black Bird - Blitzen Trapp...

Yacht - Psychic City

It's been over a week since I posted about some music, so I'm resolved to post more frequently. To that end, the posts might be shorter. Also, I'm going to be embedding links to the songs in Lala (if they're available), so you should sign up for a free account or use your Facebook account to login to hear the songs.



Every time I hear this song, I'm happy.

Psychic City (Voodoo City) - Y...

It's sexy and groovy and simple and catchy. Vocalist Claire Evans employs a Leonard Cohen-esque, half-talking delivery, and in this song, rather than sounding flat and lacking affect, it comes off as effortlessly seductive. The spare, synthesized beats follow her lead, gilded with found sounds like a water droplet and (I'm pretty sure) a slinky.

I can't get this song out of my head. Maybe it's when Evans sings, "Where you been darlin' darlin'? We been holding this moment for you," but this song makes me want to cuddle (I know some people are going to read this and have trouble with the image of me cuddling, but I'm confident enough to admit that I like a good cuddle now and then).

On a side note, there are several versions of this song, and I actually really like at least two other versions almost as much as this one. I also like the Classix Remix; it's a little more groovy and fluid than the original. The Rory Phillips Remix has a fatter, more beat-heavy flavor, reminding me of 90s techno groups like Orbital.

Good Soup! Thanks, Harmony.

Harmony Fabrizio, ex-Burke teacher and XC Coach, sent me this recipe:

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/roasted_pear_butternut_soup_with_crumbled_stilton.html

I made it on Saturday to bring to Dan's pre-marathon pot-luck. Everyone who tried it liked it.

I pretty much followed the recipe except I used cilantro (leftover from the bad soup and it's better than chives anyway).

I learned a few things from this experience:

• Apparently there are pans in a nifty little drawer underneath my oven. How'd they get there?
• When Giant prices something by the bunch and you just buy one, you get charged for the whole bunch anyway.
  
• Maureen told me that leeks grow in sand. Who knew?
• Peeling butternut squash is quite difficult because the skin is really thick and the angles are odd.
• Putting those peels in the disposal will clog your drain.

So the soup was a hit, but now I have to call a plumber. One step forward, another step back...

Bad Soup

I just made a shitload of bad soup, like a feed-a-small-country shitload. I guess it's not really bad. It's just not good.

Some things I learned:

- If the recipe doesn't look good, it might not taste good.
- If the recipe doesn't call for a pound of lentils and you just like lentils, do NOT put in a pound of lentils.
- If you have no clue what spices do what when, don't just throw more in because you think you have to make up for the pound of lentils you added to the recipe.
- If the recipe calls for a whole onion, dammit, get a whole onion.
- If all else fails, more salt and more pepper will make any soup better, not good, but better.

I won't bother posting the recipe because it's not one I'll repeat, but I did learn from this experience. I might have even learned a positive thing or two, but right now I'm not sure what that would be.

I'll be eating this epically mediocre soup for days. Anyone want some?